


Restless Nights

by Frostfeathersam



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Andtheywerecrewmates, Crewmates - Freeform, Imposter, M/M, Soulmate AU, crewmate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27145090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frostfeathersam/pseuds/Frostfeathersam
Summary: I made this as a joke for my AP English class and I got 100 so I decided to share it with the world.The lights go out in the middle of the night so Black (Kai) gets up to go fix them. He doesn’t expect anyone else to be up, but to his surprise, someone else comes to electrical to fix the lights too.
Relationships: Black/White
Comments: 10
Kudos: 65





	Restless Nights

“Stupid thing...” Kai mumbled under his breath, sweat pooling at the top of his brow as he toyed with the switches and levers on the panel before him. He lifted the bottom of his T-shirt and dragged it across his forehead, wiping his fluffy black hair out of his eyes. The man let out a sigh of annoyance and flicked another lever.

Nothing.

“What are you doing?” A voice sounded behind Kai, making him shout and drop the flashlight he was holding.

“Relax,” the voice said sternly. “It’s just me.”

“Who the hell is ‘me?’” Kai responded, a shakiness lining his throat. 

“Who’s voice does it sound like?”

After a slight pause, Kai’s vision adjusted to the darkness, and he could see Leo’s distinguished figure standing before him, as well as those cold, gray eyes he’d gotten accustomed to. What Kai was not accustomed to, however, was seeing Leo in just sweatpants and socks instead of his usual space suit. 

“O-oh, hey Leo, I didn’t see you there.” Kai laughed nervously, picking up the flashlight and accidentally shining it right into Leo’s eyes.

Leo let out a hiss and covered his face while Kai scrambled to move the light away with a blush, dropping the light again in the process.

“Sorry! I’m so sorry! Are you ok?” Kai fussed, taking a step toward Leo.

Kai cursed himself silently. Every time he was around Leo, it was like a switch flipped in his brain and made him do the most embarrassing things possible. 

Kai recalled his first time meeting Leo, years ago, before they took off on this mission. It was the first day of flight simulation, designed to get the newest generation of astronauts ready for the dangers of space travel, and Kai miraculously tripped over nothing, spilling his pudding from lunch all over Leo’s white space suit. From that day on, Kai had the misfortune of making mistakes like these whenever Leo was around.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” Leo said quietly, rubbing his eyes. 

Even though Leo brushed off most of these instances where Kai would inconvenience him, Kai only felt worse and worse. It came to the point that Kai’s heart had even begun racing every time he saw or heard Leo’s voice. 

“What are you doing?” Leo asked, snapping Kai out of his train of thought.

“Huh? Oh, the lights went out on the ship. I didn’t wanna wake up Red so I’m trying to fix it myself but... honestly, I don’t know what I’m doing.” Kai said, scratching his head as he looked back to the levers.

Leo gently directed Kai out of the way with his hand and began working on the panel himself, picking up the light that Kai had dropped and shining it on the wires in front of him. 

“How’d you know the lights were out? We’re in our night cycle. Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Leo asked, straight-faced as always.

Kai shyly rubbed the back of his own neck and looked off to the side. “I like to stay up late. Wait a minute—What were you doing up?”

Leo paused for a moment before he shook his head. 

“I have trouble sleeping.” Leo responded quietly. He continued to work on the panel until it began whirring, and before long the monitor began to blink red again. 

“There. That should have fixed it.” Leo said.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could operate the electrical too.” Kai’s voice was littered with amazement. He ran his fingers through his hair with a grin as Leo stood up and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s nothing. My dad helped build ships like these back home. It’s why I decided to join this program. Actually, you had a pretty good start on this, It only needed a few minor tweaks.”

Kai blinked a couple times in surprise. “Oh...“

Leo caught Kai’s gaze and narrowed his eyes slightly. “What’s with that look?”

“Nothing! It’s just... I’ve never heard you mention your family until now.” Kai explained.

Leo’s eyes flashed like a flickering candle before returning to their natural, dull state again.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess I don’t talk about them much.”  
“You don’t talk much in general.”

Leo didn’t respond to that comment.

The tension in the room rose steadily as the two stood in silence, the only sound being the light buzzing of the machinery around them and the faint sound of the engines operating in the other room. In this awkward moment, Kai wondered if the next 2 years would be as painful as this interaction, trapped in a relatively small ship with the only entertainment being each other’s company.

All trainees eventually end up taking this field trip as a part of their curriculum; a group of 14 trainees and an experienced operator on a 2 year trip to prepare the students for what it would be like on a real space mission. Of course, when Kai realized that Leo, the man he’d accidentally tormented for years would be on this ship with him, Kai’s excitement was replaced with dread, regardless of the fact he was also placed with some of his closest friends. Kai could only imagine what Leo must have been thinking when he saw their names on the same list; he liked to imagine that Leo probably screamed into his pillow with frustration, if only to humanize Leo’s usually forbidding atmosphere. On the other hand, Kai sort of hoped that Leo liked seeing their names together on that list.

Kai squirmed uncomfortably before blurting out, “if you’re having trouble sleeping, wanna hang out with me for a bit?” 

Leo’s face quickly fell into shock, as did Kai’s at hearing the words coming out of his own mouth.

“Um... sure, Ok.” Leo’s gaze averted Kai’s eyes.

Was Kai hearing correctly? Leo said yes? Kai could think of a million reasons why the other trainee would say no, but when he examined Leo’s features for a hint of discomfort, he found none. Leo must genuinely want to come with him. 

“W-we can come back to my room, if that’s cool with you.” Kai suggested, to which Leo responded with a light shrug of indifference. Now it was Kai who wanted to shove his face into a pillow, to scream in embarrassment.

The pair walked across the halls of the ship together, the soft sound of their feet tapping along the metal floor, creating a slight, soothing echo. It was like the melody of someone gently tapping their pen to the beat of the music in their headphones, or the tune of a bird tapping its beak against a pole, confused as to how the pole could stand firm. 

When they arrived at Kai’s room, the doors slid open to reveal a room filled with dim, yellow fairy lights and fake vines. Kai’s bed was neatly made with a few stuffed animals that Kai would usually hide if he knew he was going to have company, but obviously he wasn’t expecting a visitor so he’d just have to grit his teeth through the humiliation of someone else knowing he still slept with toys. The room itself was only big enough to hold a few things, but Kai managed to fit a bean bag chair next to his built-in desk and bed. His walls were decorated with pictures of his family and of the other crew members, along with some paintings his sister drew for him of his hometown, so he could look back on it whenever he got homesick. The floor was a slightly cluttered with clothes strewn about, along with Kai’s signature black space suit that he didn’t even bother to fold before throwing it across his desk. He didn’t see much point in putting that away since he wore it everyday (save for laundry day).

“Your room is very cozy…” Leo commented, trailing off on his words as he stepped in to examine the other man’s decorating closer. 

“Yeah, I tried to make it look close to my room back home but the small space doesn’t really allow for much. Plus it’s only been a couple weeks since we took off so I didn’t have much time to really put my stuff in their proper places.” Kai sat down on his bed, sitting cross-legged and pulling a pillow to his chest as he watched Leo familiarize himself with the room. 

“You can sit here, if you want.” Kai said, tapping on the space of the bed in front of him. 

Leo stared at the mattress for a few moments and sat across from Kai, one leg up and the other bent against the surface of the bed, his foot tucking behind the other and his back slumped. 

“Y’know, even though we’ve known each other for years, I feel like we’ve never actually sat down and hung out before.” Kai commented, holding the pillow a bit tighter to his chest.

Leo’s eyebrows furrowed in thought before he nodded in agreement, “Yeah. I guess I just kinda assumed you never wanted to talk to me.”

Kai’s eyes widened from that response. He leaned forward slightly, a small grin of disbelief on his face. “What? Why would you think that?”

Leo clearly didn’t expect that question, as evidenced by the way he bit his bottom lip. “I-I dunno,” he started, “You always seem so tongue-tied whenever I’m around you, It’s like you tense up when you realize i’m in the room.”

“That’s because I thought you never wanted to talk to me!” Kai said impulsively, catching Leo off guard. Kai quieted his voice again and cleared his throat, “I feel like I bother you.”

Kai noticed the slight blush that rose to Leo’s cheeks when he spoke, in fact, this was the first time he really noticed Leo’s face in general. Usually, Leo would pull up his collar above his nose so only his eyes would poke through, but since he was currently not wearing a shirt, Kai could actually see his entire, pale face, currently turning red.

“Bother?” Leo repeated, his finger scratching the side of his nose as his cheeks only grew more flushed, “No, not at all. I actually think you’re--”

Leo shook his head and Kai could see his eyes quickly scanning the room for something to change the topic. Kai let him change the flow of the conversation, clearly Leo was getting uncomfortable with the subject at hand. Kai couldn’t help but smile in seeing this new side of Leo, something more vulnerable than what he was used to, less cold and more open. 

“You said you were having trouble sleeping,” Kai started, “can I ask why?”

Leo quickly glanced at the pictures on Kai’s wall and back to him. Leo pulled his legs to his chest and let out a sigh before answering, “Back home, I didn’t have many people I trusted. I was always on my own.”

Kai’s grip on the pillow loosened when he heard Leo speak. Now that he thought about it, Kai couldn’t remember seeing Leo around other people often. 

“That must have been lonely…” Kai said softly.

“Not really. I mean, sometimes I felt upset about it, but I always had my family. But now that I’m out here, so far from home…” Leo looked up at the pictures of Kai’s family, a pain stabbing him in his chest.

“You miss your family.” Kai spoke for Leo, scooting a bit closer to him and moving the pillow he was holding to the side. “I know how that feels. It’s hard being so far away from the people you love, even if they aren’t that far from you at the moment.”

Leo’s gaze rested upon Kai’s face, watching how his dark locks fell upon his milky skin.

“Yeah, it is…” Leo commented, as if the words were pulled from his lips without much breath to support them.

The two sat together for what seemed like hours, talking about their home and family, remembering the times from their training fondly and recounting those memories from their own perspective. It seemed they both got a lot of things wrong when it came to how they thought the other felt about them. At times, they’d sit in silence together for a few moments, when their voices were tired, and just relaxed in the bliss of another person’s company. 

“How’s your soulmate doing back home? Does she miss you?” Leo asked, tucking his silver dyed hair behind his ear.

“Soulmate? Oh, I actually haven’t um.. I haven’t found mine yet.” Kai said quietly.

Leo looked down to Kai’s empty wrist in shock. “But your timer is gone, Those only disappear once you’ve found your soulmate.”

Kai pulled his wrist back and held it tight in his other hand. 

“My timer ran out during orientation,” Kai began, his eyes closing as he pictured that day all over again, “There must have been a thousand people crowding the area. I couldn’t discern who my soulmate could be in that huge mass of people.”

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that.” Leo said, casting his gaze back down to the blanket. “Well, you still have your soulmark at least.” 

“Yeah, but it’s in an awkward place, I doubt I’ll see anybody with it.” The man hugged his legs into his chest, a pained look on his face. “I know some people go their whole lives without ever meeting their soulmate, so it’s fine. I kinda just wish I knew who it was. Anyway, enough about me, what about you? Your timer is gone too.” Kai asked, noticing Leo’s wrist, an innocent smile on his face.

“Unfortunately, I’m in the same boat as you. I wasn’t paying attention to it and didn’t even notice it was gone. I have no idea when it ran out.” Leo looked at his empty wrist with a small frown.

“I’m sorry…” Kai said, afraid he’d brought up a topic that made Leo uncomfortable again.

Leo smiled up to Kai, “It’s ok. I wasn’t paying attention because, honestly, I didn’t care to find my soulmate. I wanted to focus on my own life first.” 

“That makes sense. I guess we’ll just both be alone together.” Kai grinned, daring to rest his head on Leo’s shoulder.

Leo’s heart skipped a beat and he leaned back against the other man. “Y’know… I’d like that a lot.”

As they sat together, Kai thought about his own feelings. He thought about how he wouldn’t mind spending the whole night like this, he thought about how he wouldn’t mind spending the next few nights like this; just talking for hours on end until they were both too tired to talk anymore and could just enjoy each other’s presence. Little did Kai know, Leo was thinking the same thing.

After a couple minutes, Leo pulled away from the moment, dragging with him the honey sweet feeling of their time together. Kai sat upright and watched Leo slink off the bed with a yawn. 

“I should go, it’s really late now.” He said, though it sounded like he lacked conviction in his voice.

Kai nodded, the sound of disappointment clear in his voice, “Right.”

Leo looked over his shoulder, Those icy blue eyes that usually felt like they were piercing Kai’s skin now examining him with the warmth of a cozy blue sweater that Kai wanted to stay wrapped up in forever.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Leo spoke softly, the words carrying to Kai’s chest and making his heart flutter. 

As Leo turned to walk out the door, Kai’s breath caught in his throat. Leo had a black mark on the center of his back in the shape of a butterfly with the outline of blooming flowers just beneath it, an exact replica of the one Kai had on the center of his back in white. 

“See you…” Kai mumbled, his lips curled up in a dazed smile as he watched Leo leave.


End file.
